A refrigerator is an appliance that serves to store food at low temperatures; it may be configured to store food at temperatures below freezing or at low but above freezing temperatures.
The temperature inside the refrigerator is maintained at the desired level by cool air that is continuously supplied to the refrigerator. The cool air is continuously produced by a heat exchange operation between air and a refrigerant performed in a refrigeration cycle comprising four sequential phases: compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation. Cool air is channeled to the inside of the refrigerator and is evenly distributed inside the refrigerator by convection.
The body of a refrigerator typically has a rectangular hexahedral shape that opens frontward, with a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment defined and isolated from one another within the refrigerator body. The open front of the refrigerator body may comprise both a refrigerator compartment door and a freezer compartment door that can open or close the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment, respectively. The storage space defined inside the refrigerator may comprise a plurality of drawers, shelves, and boxes designed to store various kinds of food in various optimal states.
In the related art, a top mount type refrigerator in which the freezer compartment is provided in the upper part of the refrigerator body and the refrigerator compartment is provided in the lower part of the refrigerator body is well known. However, in recent years, for greater convenience to users, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezer compartment is provided in the lower part of the refrigerator body has been proposed and used. The bottom freezer type refrigerator may be preferable since the more frequently used refrigerator compartment is located in the upper part of the refrigerator body and the less frequently used freezer compartment is located in the lower part of the refrigerator body. However, the bottom freezer type refrigerator is problematic in that to take ice cubes from the freezer compartment, a user must open the freezer compartment door and collect ice cubes while bending.
In an effort to solve the problem, in recent years, a refrigerator in which an ice dispenser for dispensing ice cubes is provided in a refrigerator compartment door placed in the upper part of a bottom freezer type refrigerator has been proposed and used. In such a refrigerator, an ice making device for making ice cubes may be provided in the refrigerator compartment door or inside the refrigerator compartment.
The ice machine may include an ice maker provided with an ice tray generating ice, and an ice bucket in which the generated ice is stored. The ice generated in the ice maker may be dropped and accumulated in the ice bucket that is positioned on a lower side of the ice tray.
Further, the ice accumulated in the ice bucket may be transported to a discharge portion through a transport system. For example, the transport system may be an auger having screw or spiral-shaped wings. When the transport system, such as an auger, is rotated, the ice accumulated in the ice bucket may be disposed between the wings of the auger and may be transported in a direction in which the ice is guided through the wings.
However, according to the existing refrigerator, a motor system for rotating the transport system is installed inside the ice machine, usability of a space in the ice machine is lowered due to a space that is occupied by the motor system.
Further, since the motor system is installed in the existing ice machine, it is required to arrange an ice making system in front of an upper portion of the motor system so as to prevent the ice that is generated by the ice making system from being dropped to the motor system. In order to arrange the ice making system in front of the upper portion of the motor system, it is necessary to additionally install an air supply duct for supplying cold air to the ice making system in the rear of the ice making system. The usability of the space in the ice machine becomes further deteriorated due to the space occupied by the air supply duct, and a loss of cold air may occur in the process of supplying the cold air through the air supply duct.